From solid to standout Maybe the most surprising thing about Portland indie band Brenda’s set at the Wilco-curated Solid Sound Festival on the Mass MoCA campus in North Adams, Massachusetts, on Saturday was that people were actually there to see it. Lots of them.

First step for the freak fest The three key components to any successful underground music concert are good bands, cheap booze, and a sketchy venue whose identity is a semi-well-kept secret.

From solid to standout Maybe the most surprising thing about Portland indie band Brenda’s set at the Wilco-curated Solid Sound Festival on the Mass MoCA campus in North Adams, Massachusetts, on Saturday was that people were actually there to see it. Lots of them.

First step for the freak fest The three key components to any successful underground music concert are good bands, cheap booze, and a sketchy venue whose identity is a semi-well-kept secret.

Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008 Trans Am are distillers of guilty pleasures, mixing fat AOR riffs with sleazy electronic accents and a propulsive attitude typically reserved for arcade soundtracks. What Day Is It Tonight? covers the DC-area band’s 20-year history with high-quality, high-energy live cuts taken from their many tours.

Various Artists | Panama! 3 If you purchase a copy of Soundway’s wonderful Panama! 3 — and you should — you get two things for the price of one. First, this is a carefully curated CD of “Calypso Panameño, Guajira Jazz & Cumbia Típica on the Isthmus 1960-75” that will keep you smiling — and perhaps dancing — for a healthy while.

The Big Hurt: Lambert works it, 50 blows it, Moz ends it ADAM LAMBERT 's spicy AMA performance continues to dominate entertainment headlines, weeks after it first scandalized the nation — but why does America care what a man does with another man in the secluded privacy of the American Music Awards?

PHOTOS: TEA PARTY RALLY AND COUNTER-PROTEST AT BOSTON COMMON | April 17, 2012 As the Mass Tea Party Coalition rallied at Boston Common on Sunday, April 15th, a group of approximately 60 activists held a counter-protest. The counter-protest called attention to the Tea Party's anti-gay sentiments, specifically protesting the afternoon's appearances by Scott Lively and Brian Camenker. Rick Santorum was originally scheduled to speak, but did not. Three protesters were arrested.